For each type of instrument you wish to value, LUSID provides a default pricing model:

Instrument type

Default pricing model

Bond, FxForward

ConstantTimeValueOfMoney

All other types

SimpleStatic

You can change the default pricing model for any instrument type except Equity to provide a more suitable or sophisticated result. You can even conditionally select different pricing models for the same instrument type.

Note: The pricing model you choose impacts the quantity and quality of market data required. Find out more about this.

The complete set of built-in pricing models is listed here. To help you discover what pricing models are valid for an instrument type, call the GetExistingInstrumentModels API with the LUID of an instrument of that type, for example:

curl -X GET "https://<your-domain>.lusid.com/api/api/instruments/LUID_00003D64/models?instrumentScope=default&recipeScope=default"
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-API-access-token>"

The response contains the currently-valid pricing models for (in this case) an equity option:

{
  "instrumentId": "LUID_00003D64",
  "supportedModels": [
    "SimpleStatic",
    "Discounting",
    "BlackScholes",
    "ConstantTimeValueOfMoney",
    "Bachelier"
  ],
  ...
}

Appendix A

The following table lists valid pricing models for certain instrument types (this may be useful if you have not yet mastered instruments):

Instrument type

Valid pricing model(s)

Equity

SimpleStatic

Bond, ComplexBond

BondLookupPricer (recommended)
SimpleStatic
Discounting

InflationLinkedBond

BondLookupPricer (recommended)
SimpleStatic

FxForward

SimpleStatic
Discounting
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney
ForwardWithPoints
ForwardWithPointsUndiscounted

ForwardSpecifiedRate

ForwardSpecifiedRateUndiscounted

ForwardFromCurve

ForwardFromCurveUndiscounted

EquityOption

SimpleStatic
Discounting
BlackScholes
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney
Bachelier

FxOption
Note model availability may vary with different pay off and exercise types.

SimpleStatic
Discounting
BlackScholes
BlackScholesDigital
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney
Bachelier
BjerksundStensland1993

Future

SimpleStatic
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney

ContractForDifference

SimpleStatic
Discounting
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney

Repo

SimpleStatic
Discounting
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney

EquitySwap

SimpleStatic
Discounting
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney

InterestRateSwap

SimpleStatic
Discounting
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney

InterestRateSwaption

SimpleStatic
Discounting
BlackScholes
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney
Bachelier

TermDeposit

SimpleStatic
Discounting
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney

FundingLeg

SimpleStatic
Discounting
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney

CreditDefaultSwap

SimpleStatic
Discounting
ConstantTimeValueOfMoney